by Walter Brasch Up to two feet of snow hit the Mid-Atlantic and New England states last week, the second storm within two weeks. Wind gusts of up to 50 miles an hour and temperatures in the 20s created severe wind chill and extreme hazardous driving conditions. Pennsylvania ordered all commercial trucks off many of its major highways and Interstates. Schools and colleges throughout the Northeast cancelled...

When Roger Ebert appears on Oprah tomorrow (Tuesday) he’ll be using software to find the voice he lost to cancer. Ebert tells the tale on his blog: One day I was moseying around the Web and found the name of a company in Edinburgh named CereProc. They claimed they could build voices for specific customers. They had demos of the voices of George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. … I had an idea....

Often when you are listening to the news they will use little fillers to take up the extra time in the segment. Earlier today I heard a couple I thought worth sharing. As some of you may know the government has imposed new standards for the airlines to comply with. Specifically if the airline leaves passengers on the runway for longer than 3 hours they will be fined for each passenger. The fines could total...

The closing ceremonies got off to a great start with the fourth arm going up — the one that didn’t work during the lighting at the opening ceremonies, the malfunction that got all the overhyped buzz and took on a life of its own in the media — and with Catriona Le May Doan finally getting to light it, and I enjoyed seeing the athletes come in, all the Canadians, with Joannie Rochette carrying...

I’m late getting to this, but, well, you know, the Olympics. Our women’s hockey team shut out the U.S. for a third straight gold, our men’s and women’s curlers both won their semifinal matches, and Joannie Rochette, a lovely and courageous young woman, skated to the bronze in women’s figure skating, with all of Canada behind her, just days after her mother’s death. Yesterday...

center> The world seems obsessed about what Tiger Woods was trying to do with his highly publicized apology. Was it more personal or was it largely public relations? Richard Martineau, a sports columnist with Le Journal de Montreal, puzzles over this odd American ritual contrition, and thinks he’s come up with an answer. For Le Journal de Montreal, Richard Martineau writes in part: In communist China,...

Sad news out of Vancouver Canada. Actor Andrew Koening, son of Walter (aka Chekov) has been missing for several weeks. His body was found today, the victim of a suicide brought on by depression. If you know somebody who is dealing with this horrible condition please be sure to watch over them. A heartbreaking video of his parents press conference. http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/andrew_koenig/index.html

Controversy surrounding the victory of American Evan Lysacek over Russian Evgeny Plushenko in Olympic figure skating continues to swirl in Russia. In this interview from Russia’s Life News, three time Olympic gold medalist Irina Rodnina attempts to put paid to the widely-held view in Russia that Plushenko should have won. In this interview with Russia’s Life News, Irina Rodnina says in part: “Speaking...

Hooray for Hollywood…. A tribute to the movies: And another tribute, this time with the full vocal (Doris Day): And — believe it or not — the REAL Brady Bunch featured the song on their (short lived) variety hour: Meanwhile, people still play the tune on various instruments:

Here’s one intriguing view…

Welcome to the “American Idol” Abbattoir by Pat Reeder It’s truly bizarre to me that so many people get so caught up in “American Idol.” I watched it for the first few years, but lost interest at least four seasons ago. Still, I see flashes of it as I wander through the living room because my wife Laura is that rarest of endangered species, a professional singer with musical training....

A friend, who is a fellow tennis player and a bird watcher, just returned from a cruise to and around Antarctica and had some fascinating stories to tell about the “White Continent” with its spectacular ice, rugged mountais and fjords, aggressive seals and awesome whales, and—of course—the unique birds that inhabit the various islands, including the first Snow Petrel he has ever seen. Jim—that’s...

Yeah, so I’m not blogging as much as usual with the Olympics on, what with such extensive coverage on three different Canadian networks. But you know what? We rule! Uh… at… uh… ice dancing? Yes! No, it’s not a sport, and it’s utterly ridiculous, with the performers — it’s undeniably athletic, and commentators fall all over themselves trying to justify it as a sport...

Those stalwart defenders of mother Russia, the communists of St. Petersburg and Leningrad, are at it again. In the past, they’ve called for the arrest of James Cameron for stealing the story of Avatar from Soviet science fiction writers, they have demanded that the Russian Orthodox Church canonize Joseph Stalin, and they’ve complained about the way the KGB was depicted in James Bond films and Indiana...

Via The Christian Science Monitor’s Jimmy Orr (I predicted to friends this would happen): So Sarah Palin is going on Jay Leno. Yep, NBC announced Leno’s first week line-up today. And Palin is on night number two. Shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Leno needs ratings bad. Worse than Olbermann-bad. Leno’s gotta show he can score. And who can bring in the numbers? Sarah Palin. Yes you...

According to ancient sources, from 776 BC to 393 AD on a pretty regular basis, armed conflict in Greece came to a halt every four years for the holding of the Olympic Games. In this lighthearted look at the usefulness of the Games, Swiss columnist Patrik Etschmayer writes that while they still provide a welcomed distraction, the modern Games usually involve diverting our attention from less dire threats to...

Ayn Rand and the World She Made Reviewed by Ron Beasley The picture on the left may represent the beginning of the deregulation frenzy that resulted in the current world wide economic disaster. It was taken in 1974 by David Hume Kennerly and pictured are President Gerald Ford, Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand, Rand’s husband Frank Conner and Greenspan’s mother Rose Goldsmith. The occasion was Alan Greenspan...

Adele Stan at AlterNet unpacks Glenn Beck’s keynote speech at CPAC. Via Heather at Crooks and Liars and Digby at Hullabaloo. Complete video set at YouTube.

John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Mike Lester, The Rome News-Tribune This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.